Korea Retail, Hotel, Logistics Research

Savills Research & Consultancy aims to offer objective advice to clients in order to help them make well-informed real estate related decisions and realise pre-defined goals.

Featured report

Spotlight Seoul Retail 2H 2018
26 October 2018

Amidst the rise of online commerce and the shrinking share of offline retail sales, changes in the retail real estate environment are highly visible. Owner/operators continue to liquidate hypermarkets and department stores as the market for these assets remains stable. Investment targets are becoming more varied, such as buying smalland medium-sized buildings, partaking in shopping mall development projects, and converting office floors to retail floors.

Amidst the rise of online commerce and the shrinking share of offline retail sales, changes in the retail real estate environment are highly visible. Owner/operators continue to liquidate hypermarkets and department stores as the market for these assets remains stable. Investment targets are becoming more varied, such as buying smalland medium-sized buildings, partaking in shopping mall development projects, and converting office floors to retail floors.

Located south-east of downtown Seoul, Pangyo is a planned city in Gyeonggi province which the Government developed to alleviate Seoul’s housing shortage and accelerate IT industrial development. To prevent the city from becoming a commuter town and to be self-contained, the central and Gyeonggi provincial government constructed a venture valley called Pangyo Techno Valley I (First Pangyo) at Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si covering a 660,000 sq m land site.

Though the number of Mainland Chinese tourists to Korea has declined by 50% as a result of political tensions with China, the number of visitors from other parts of Asia has increased by 9%, leading to more diversification of source markets.

Imports/exports and e-commerce sectors have undergone significant growth, as is the case in most economies. According to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, container freight volumes grew 12% in 2017. Strong export growth from the petrochemical and automobiles industries has driven this increase.

Based on the Korea Appraisal Board (KAB) data in June 2017, 1/F rents in the top five retail areas for mid-size buildings have shown a divergent performance. Retail rents in Myeongdong and Gangnamdaero recorded steady growth from 2014 to mid 2016, but have recorded slight downward movement since 2016. Meanwhile retail rents for Hongdae-Hapjung increased due to new recreational facilities and improved infrastructure.

Korea’s population, is 51 million, with 50% living in the Seoul metropolitan area (Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi province ). Due to Korea’s low birth rate, low marriage rate and aging society, the average household size was 2.5 in 2016, shrinking from the 3.7 average in 1990. The proportion of households of only one or two people is 53%, and 40% for households of three or four. As the demographic characteristics have changed, perception and requirements for housing have changed acc

This survey was conducted to better understand tenants’ logistics centre preferences. With the survey results, Savills subsequently analysed key considerations and requirements for occupiers. Logistics tenants can be broadly categorised into either 3PL, manufacturing or retail. According to our survey, companies with a yearly sales volume exceeding KRW1 trillion, including Hyundai Logistics, CJ Korea Express and Hanjin Express, owned or leased more than 50 logist

From 2007 to 2014, the average annual increase in the number of foreign visitors to Korea was 12%. However, after the MERS outbreak in May 2015, the number of overseas tourists fell by 1 million compared to the previous year, totalling 13.2 million in 2015. In 2015, visitors from Asian countries accounted for 80% of all foreign visitors to Korea. By country, Chinese visitors represent 45% (6 million) of all visitors to Korea, followed by Japanese at 14% (1.85 million). The Korean touris

The consumer sentiment index, which fell below 100 in the wake of the MERS outbreak, recovered to 100 in January 2016. However, household consumption has remained sluggish amidst slow economic growth, the high level of household debt which reached KRW 1,200 trillion (84% of GDP), and the increase in pension and insurance premiums and taxes, as well as rising unemployment for those in their 20s and early 30s. The expenditure-to-income ratio declined from 77% in 2010 to 72% in 2015, showing a c

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 2,223 logistics facilities were registered as at May 2015. The Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggido areas accounted for 43% of these, of which 899 were dry warehouses and 45 were cold warehouses.